George RR Martin Says In Interview Game of Thrones Will Have A "Bittersweet Ending"
Observer.com- Q: The number one question people ask me about the series is whether I think everyone will lose—whether it will end in some horrible apocalypse. I know you can’t speak to that specifically, but as a revisionist of epic fantasy—?
A: I haven’t written the ending yet, so I don’t know, but no. That’s certainly not my intent. I’ve said before that the tone of the ending that I’m going for is bittersweet. I mean, it’s no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord of the Rings. It ends with victory, but it’s a bittersweet victory. Frodo is never whole again, and he goes away to the Undying Lands, and the other people live their lives. And the scouring of the Shire—brilliant piece of work, which I didn’t understand when I was 13 years old: “Why is this here? The story’s over?” But every time I read it I understand the brilliance of that segment more and more. All I can say is that’s the kind of tone I will be aiming for. Whether I achieve it or not, that will be up to people like you and my readers to judge.
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(Spoilers, obviously.)
“Bittersweet ending” can mean a lot of things, but it has to be a pretty big relief for fans to know that the series won’t have a The Departed-esque ending with everyone falling and dying in a bloody mess. That type of ending is fine in a movie you only spend 2 hours on (Departed is my favorite movie, I’m not bagging it), but for a show that you invest literally days of your life watching, that would piss me off, especially when said show that has recently been accused of being predictable in that it’s always filled with unrepentant defeat. It’s funny that what made Thrones special was the feeling it was one of the rare stories where no one was safe, but now it’s done the 180° to being derided as cliché, just in the totally opposite way.
But whenever George RR Martin speaks about how Thrones will end, it always sparks a lot of discussion amongst fans on their own theories. The obvious ending is a triumph by some combination of Daenerys , Tyrion and Jon Snow due to the similarities of their three characters being marginalized children from mothers killed in childbirth, who found some redemption and purpose in a world that hates them, but have been faced adversity in leadership positions and knocked down a peg the past two seasons. That and the whole recurring themes of “the three-headed dragon” and them being the de facto main characters in the increasingly sprawling storyline would point to like Dany using her dragons to defeat the White Walkers alongside Jon Snow with Tyrion cheering them on from the nearest whorehouse or something like that.
My theory has always been the eventual victor of everything is going to be Sansa Stark. Sansa’s entire storyline so far has pretty much been an uninterrupted chain of unmitigated tragedy. I mean even Robb Stark got a few triumphant moments before the whole “horrifically-slaughtered-by-people-you-trust-in-front-of-your-own-wife-and-mother” thing. For Sansa to not get any sort of satisfying ending would feel like GRRM was smacking around this poor girl for 7 books without any real purpose behind it. Besides, if GRRM’s favorite ending is Frodo’s at the end of Lord of the Rings, where the hero is ultimately victorious but is still unable to just go through regular life as a happy and normal person because of what he has seen and done, wouldn’t that fit into an ending where Sansa finally is Queen (remember her saying in Season 1 “it’s all I ever wanted) but is too scarred to enjoy it? She has everything she’s ever wanted, but it’s cost her everything in the process. Obviously George RR Martin will come up with a 10x better ending than anything I could ever come up with, but that direction would make sense to me.
Here’s the link to the full interview if anyone is interested.
PS: I asked Barstool legend and Game of Thrones superfan Numero Two how he thought it’d end because he’s smarter than I am and knows a lot more about the books than I do, and this is what he gave me: “Jon Snow and Bran warg into two of the three dragons with Daenerys to fight the White Walkers. Dany kills Jon Snow/Azor Ahai. Arya assassinates Dany. Gendry, Robert’s bastard with the help of the Brotherhood Without Banners takes the Iron Throne. It’s a hot take prediction but he’s still alive for a reason and now, the eldest Baratheon heir.” Seems far fetched to me but it’s an interesting thought.
Email is CharlieWisco@aol.com and Twitter is @CharlieWisco